Recently, Loudwire, Ultimate Classic Rock and Billboard dropped a major story in ticket sales scandaling. According to the sources, Metallica ticket associate Tony DiCoiccio colluded with U.S. Live Nation ticket president Bob Roux; in a scheme to flood the U.S. market with secondary sale tickets for Metallica’s North American leg of the WorldWired Tour. According to Ultimate Classic Rock there are recordings of the conversations between the two that Billboard dropped a few days ago.
‘When this happens, 4,600 tickets into a single account, it might raise some eyebrows,’ Roux can be heard saying. ‘I’m trying to figure it out with Tony. You want to keep this quiet. There’s no good way for the light bulbs not to go off.’ The recording was acquired by a third party who was also on the phone with Roux and DiCoiccio. Vaughn Millette, an independent concert promoter, sent the recording to Live Nation executives. Ultimately, Roux lost money on the resale scandal.
Hear’s the thing about a ticket scandal like this, it’s not illegal. That doesn’t mean it’s not shady as hell or in general, a shitty thing to do. Buy, tickets, re-sell them independently and reap the benefits. But what’s so shitty about it, is that it waves a huge middle finger to those who paid full price for their tickets with their hard earned money. Usually resale tickets are sold a lower price, so the guy you’re sitting next to in the front on the floor section might have spent a fraction of what you spent through the proper channels. Which, of course, is shitty. Not that it’s not a great deal for fans who take advantage. But there certainly should be some law written about secondary ticket sales. This isn’t anything new. It just so happens that these guys got busted in the middle of doing it and they represented Metallica.
But this practice has been going on for decades. It’s essentially scalping. But now it’s on a major online market. The big question I think is, is did Metallica know about this or not? It’s really hard to say. All we know from the report is that Roux is apparently close to the band. With that being said I don’t think Metallica really knew what was going on. They have a history of fighting ticket scandals so I have a hard time thinking that they had anything to do with this scandal. The only positive conclusion to this is that Roux lost money on the deal. Which is what people deserve when they engage in ripping the people off.
